In 1864 Germany made a start with its modern navy by ordering from Messrs. Samuda the cupola ship Arminius. One or two others were added, and then, in 1867, the powerful armour-cased screw frigate Kron Prinz was launched from the same yards. She was of 286 feet in length, and of 3,404 tons, builder’s measurement, with engines of 1,800 nominal h.p. Her armour-plating extended entirely round the vessel from 6 feet below the water-line up to the main deck. The armour was 5 inches thick except near the ends where it was reduced to 4½ inches, and arrangements were made for the protection of the rudder and steering apparatus, as well as of the whole of the lower deck. The armour extended 14 feet upwards about 120 feet along each side, so as to protect the amidship battery, which was also protected by cross bulkheads. She was fitted with a considerable number of watertight compartments, a double bottom, and steel plating over the deck beams. She carried fourteen steel breech-loading guns of 7 tons each in her battery, a pivot gun on the deck at the bow protected by an armour-plated shield, and a pivot gun aft. Her iron lower masts served to ventilate the interior, and her lower yards were of steel; her speed was estimated at thirteen knots.
Apparently so well satisfied were the Prussians with this product of a British yard, that when the opportunity offered two years later to acquire one of the most powerful warships yet designed, they took advantage of it. There had been laid down at Blackwall for the Ottoman Government, a vessel designed by Mr. Reed, Chief Constructor to the British Navy, but Turkey, either seeing a profit in the transaction or being short of cash—deficiencies not being unknown in the history of Ottoman finance—permitted her, when about half finished, to be acquired by the Prussian Government. She was 365 feet in length, or 30 feet longer than the Hercules, with a beam of 60 feet, and a mean draught of 26 feet of water, with a burden of 6,000 tons. Her engines, by Maudslay, were of 1,150 h.p. nominal, and 7,000 effective. She was constructed on the longitudinal system, and within both frames and ribs was another iron skin an inch thick, making her a double ship, the inner one being 4½ feet from the other. The armour was 8 inches thick amidships, and tapering downwards to a thickness of 7 inches to 7 feet below the water-line. It also tapered towards the bow and stern, diminishing from 8 inches to 6 inches. Under the counter or bows, where it was considered almost impossible a shot could strike, the armour was only 4 inches thick. But elsewhere there was never less than 6 inches of armour, besides the 10-inch teak backing and double iron skin. Aft of the bowsprit and forward of the stern were two heavy bulkheads, each of 6 inches of armour and 18 inches of teak, which were continued from the lower deck, through the main deck, and up to 7 feet above the spar deck, where they were curved to form shields, each pierced with four portholes for cannon and loop-holed for musketry. Within these shields were four Krupp’s steel breech-loading 400-pounders, which could be fired forward or aft, or as broadside guns; and there were also twenty-three similar guns between decks. She was at that time the heaviest vessel which had been docked in the Thames.
Her new possessors evidently thought very highly of her, or they desired to pay her builders a compliment, for the German Government selected her to represent the German Navy at the Jubilee Review in 1887.
CHAPTER VII
ARMOURED SHIPS IN ACTION
When, in 1865, Spain deemed it necessary to give a lesson to her daughter Peru, whose victorious insurgents held views as to the non-payment of an indemnity, of which the mother country did not approve, she found that another of her offspring, Chili, sympathised with her sister, and it became necessary in Spain’s opinion to extend the lesson to both States. The best warship she could supply for the purpose was the Numancia. This was a formidable vessel built for the Spanish Government in the ’sixties, at the time that relations were likely to be strained to breaking point between Spain and the two South American States. She was accompanied by some unarmoured vessels carrying about two hundred and fifty guns altogether, nearly all of which were old smooth-bores, the others being rifled guns of no great power. The Chilians had the Esmeralda, a small vessel having a complement of one hundred and twenty-three officers and men, and carrying eighteen smooth-bores of which the heaviest were 32-pounders. With this vessel they retaliated upon the Spaniards for their preliminary blockade of the Chilian ports by capturing, in November, 1865, the gunboat Covadonga, a somewhat similar boat to the Esmeralda, with two 68-pounders as her chief weapons. As usual, the Chilians shot well and the Spaniards shot badly, and the issue of the engagement was not long in doubt. The Spanish fleet distinguished itself by a cowardly bombardment of Valparaiso in 1866, notwithstanding its defenceless condition, when, in spite of their wretched shooting, the Spaniards caused a great deal of damage, principally owing to the Numancia’s guns. Valparaiso did not reply.
The Spanish fleet next tried Callao, which was fortified and gave the Spaniards more to think about than they cared for. The principal guns in the batteries were four Armstrong rifles, 300-pounders, which were in turrets faced with 10-inch armour, and five rifles of the Blakely pattern, firing 450 lb. shot. There were also several smaller smooth-bore guns. A small vessel of the monitor type, the Victoria, with one 64-pounder, and the monitor Manco Capac, with railway iron armour and two 68-pounders, constituted the Peruvian fleet. The Numancia, at 1,500 yards range, led her consorts to the attack, but in about half an hour the Ville de Madrid was placed hors de combat with a shot in her steam-pipe. The next disaster to the Spaniards was when the Berenguela had a hole blown in her side by a Blakely shell, so that she could do no more fighting. Then two more Spanish ships had to retire, as they had fired away all their ammunition. The Numancia was hit repeatedly, but her armour saved her from serious damage. The smaller projectiles did her no harm at all, but one of the shells from an Armstrong gun went through her plating and was prevented by the backing from going farther. Both sides lost heavily, but notwithstanding the amount of ammunition expended the damage was not very extensive. This time the honours were distinctly with the shore batteries, and the Spaniards sailed for home.
That the advantage given by the possession of powerful warships may be entirely neutralised was demonstrated by the Brazilians in their conflict with Paraguay, in 1865. The Paraguayans fought with the energy of despair. They were between the devil and the deep sea, for they knew that if they did not conquer their enemy, their commander would reward them with tortures from which death would give them a welcome release. In these circumstances the Paraguayans displayed extraordinary daring with a by no means adequate fleet for resisting the Brazilians, who were allied with Uruguay and the Argentine republic, as the outcome of the Paraguayan president, Francisco Lopez’s, energetic, if unconventional, methods. During this war the Cabral and Colombo were added to the Brazilian fleet from Thames builders. They were each 160 feet long and drew 9 feet 9 inches when loaded, and with two pairs of direct-acting horizontal engines of 200 h.p., each driving a screw propeller, so that they were twin-screw boats, they could attain a speed of ten and a half knots. They were really oblong iron forts, supported on rafts. There was no central battery, but each vessel carried six guns forward, two being disposed in the front of the citadel and two on either side of the fore part. A similar battery was placed at the other end. The armour-plates were 4½ inches in thickness, and the deck before and abaft the battery gradually sloped all round to the water-line, and being covered with 2½-inch armour-plating, prevented a shot from penetrating into the ship. The arrangement of the guns enabled these vessels to be fought either end on, or on the broadside. Each was armed with twelve 70-pounder Whitworth guns. Two other powerful vessels were also built for Brazil at Birkenhead. One of the oddest naval encounters on record was fought in March, 1866, between a powerful Brazilian fleet and a Paraguayan vessel. The Brazilians had three of these ironclads, a single-turreted monitor, and several wooden ships. The Paraguayans opposed this armada with a barge mounting an 8-inch smooth-bore gun. The firing was fast, furious, and inaccurate. The smooth-bore made good practice. The Brazilians hit everything in range for some time except the one-gun barge. By dint of perseverance they struck it eventually and sunk it.[46] This glorious naval exploit was followed by another piece of daring, in which the Brazilian fleet engaged in a more or less uninterrupted encounter for three weeks with a fort mounting one gun; the fleet won.
The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw not a little warlike activity in one part of the world and another in which the navies of the contestant powers were conspicuous. The naval engagements in the Russo-Turkish War were mainly remarkable for the regularity with which the Turkish warships were blown up by the Russians, the daring of Russian officers in making attack after attack, and the apparent disinclination of the Turkish officers to take adequate means to protect their vessels. Had the Turks been as vigilant as the Russians, the latter would hardly have scored so many brilliant successes.
The South American Republics, too, were indulging in one of those periodical bursts of unrest and pugnacity which seem inseparable from South American States in their relations with each other, or in the administration of their internal affairs, and when carefully fomented may lead plotting politicians on to become dictators and the victims of assassinations—unless they are fortunate enough to retire to Paris with the spoils and live in luxury and die naturally.